Citation

De Oliveira CVR, Rasheed M, Yousafzai AK. Front. Psychiatry 2019; 10: e859.

Affiliation

Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Frontiers Media)

DOI

10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00859

PMID

31824356

PMCID

PMC6880608

Abstract

Background: Maternal depression affects a high proportion of women during the antenatal and postnatal period in low- and middle-income countries. While maternal depression is recognized as a significant risk for poor early child development that warrants interventions, the effects of chronic maternal depression on children's development are less understood. Objective: To determine the association of chronicity of maternal depressive symptoms and early child development in a rural population in southern Pakistan. Materials and Methods: This study employs data from the "Pakistan Early Child Development Scale-Up Trial," a randomized controlled study that evaluated the integration of responsive stimulation and nutrition interventions in a community health service. In the present analysis, linear regression was used to test the effects of chronicity of high maternal depressive symptoms on children's early development (n = 1205 mother-infant dyads). Children's development was assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development at 24 months of age. Maternal depressive symptoms were assessed at baseline and every 6 months using the Self-Reporting Questionnaire. Results: No significant associations were observed between chronic maternal depressive symptoms and child cognitive, language, or motor development after adjusting for parental characteristics, the caregiving environment and socioeconomic variables. A negative significant association between chronicity of high maternal depressive symptoms and child socio-emotional development (β coefficient -2.57, 95% CI: -5.14; -0.04) was observed after adjusting for the selected variables. Conclusions: The results suggest that interventions designed to promote early child development should also integrate repeat screening for depression and longer-term psychosocial support for mothers.

Copyright © 2019 De Oliveira, Rasheed and Yousafzai.

Language: en

Keywords

chronicity; cognition; early child development; language; low- and middle-income countries; maternal depression; motor skills; socio-emotional development